Re: Fwd: Re: 11th specimen of Archaeopteryx

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Don Ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Interesting idea -- a plant clade so fearsome that no vertebrates will
> inhabit it.


That seems to be the case these days.  Quite a number of mammal and
bird species eat the cycad seeds; but AFAIK none of them seem to want
to hang around.


> I would argue they would make nice safe places to spend the night for a
> creature of Arch. size, for just the reasons you mention -- I don't remember
> mentioning nesting. Ground-foraging tree-roosters don't necessarily nest in
> trees, anyway -- American Wild Turkeys certainly do not, and bears regularly
> sleep in trees, as example :D...


Some years ago a guy named Svend Palm proposed that "pro-avians" like
_Archaeopteryx_ climbed cycads, and nested in the apex.  I think he
had a publication to that effect (which I don't have).  Might be a
website somewhere.  As I recall, his evidence wasn't especially
compelling.


> I am not claiming that Arch. was a ground-forager that slept in trees,
> ordinary or otherwise -- it is just that 1) the lack of perching pes does
> not exclude them from that lifestyle, and 2) their bodies as seen in the
> record would be suitable for it, given the right vegetative forms.
>
> Both points always seem to get lost in these discussions.


I certainly agree that the lack of a perching pes does not exclude any
small paravian from scaling or sitting in cycads.






Cheers

Tim